“They put arsenic in his meat And stared aghast to watch him eat; They poured strychnine in his cup And shook to see him drink it up.”

That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, the happy highways where I went and cannot come again.

Therefore, since the world has still Much good, but much less good than ill.

Nature, not content with denying him the ability to think, has endowed him with the ability to write.

Ten thousand times I’ve done my best and all’s to do again.

Give me a land of boughs in leaf A land of trees that stand; Where trees are fallen there is grief; I love no leafless land.

Housman is one of my heroes and always has been. He was a detestable and miserable man. Arrogant, unspeakably lonely, cruel, and so on, but and absolutely marvellous minor poet, I think, and a great scholar.

Luck’s a chance, but trouble’s sure.

All knots that lovers tie Are tied to sever. Here shall your sweetheart lie, Untrue for ever.

Oh, ’tis jesting, dancing, drinking Spins the heavy world around.

Now hollow fires burn out to black, And lights are guttering low: Square your shoulders, lift your pack And leave your friends and go.

Some men are more interesting than their books but my book is more interesting than its man.

Earth and high heaven are fixed of old and founded strong.

In every American there is an air of incorrigible innocence, which seems to conceal a diabolical cunning.

The thoughts of others were light and fleeting, Of lovers’ meeting Or luck or fame. Mine were of trouble, And mine were steady; So I was ready When trouble came.

Stars, I have seen them fall, But when they drop and die, No star is lost at all From all the star-sown sky. The toil of all that be Helps not the primal fault; It rains into the sea And still the sea is salt.

Poetry is not the thing said, but the way of saying it.